4th International RoboGames Ends - Over 800 Robots Finish - USA, Singapore, China are Big Medal Winners

(PRWEB) June 29, 2007 -- The 4th International RoboGames (http://www.robogames.net) finished last week, with humans and robots from around the world flying out after a hard four days of competition in 62 different robot events. Packed stands watched androids play basketball, combat robots fight, intelligent robots fight fires, smart cars drive through an obstacle course, and even bartending robots mix drinks.

"We're very proud of what we've built here," said David Calkins, RoboGames founder. "This is the world's largest open competition. Absolutely anyone can compete. You don't have to go to a high school or university, you don't have to be rich, you don't have to be part of some company, and you don't have to be a set age or gender. We've got kids 15 years old competing against 60 year old professional roboticists, Iranians going up against Americans, men vs. women, and grad students competing against handymen."

Because of the breadth and diversity of competitions at RoboGames, the event hopes to inspire innovation and huge jumps in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, android gait programming, vision recognition, and many other disciplines.

"When you've got a deadline, and you know that you're competing against some of the world's smartest people, you work harder and longer," says Calkins. "These guys want to win. And to win, they've got to innovate. We even beat our previous world record for attendees, getting about 850 robots to attend."

"Now we're looking for more sponsors to help get teams here in 2008," said Calkins. "We had over 100 teams this year who just couldn't afford the airfare. Can you imagine how good the events would be if these engineers were as well funded as olympic athletes? The progress and advancements in robotics would be amazing due to the level of competition." The 2008 event was announced as being in San Francisco, May 23-25, 2008.

One of the most impressive competitions was the seven "Humanoid Challenges" for autonomous androids, which had to compete in BasketBall, a 1:1000 scaled Marathon, an Obstacle Run, one-on-one Penalty Kick, a short Dash, Weight Lifting, and the "Lift and Carry." Taiwan's TK University robot "Pi" was the big winner, taking gold in the Septathalon (overall points), Obstacle Run, Dash, Penalty Kick and Weight Lifting, and silver in Basketball and the Marathon.

"I didn't really think that any robots would be able to sink baskets in basketball, but they all surprised me and did it. The robots have to find the hoop themselves - it's not remote controlled," said Calkins. "Next year I guess we'll have to do a slam dunk event," he said, chuckling.

The Mirosot soccer competition (autonomous, rubic's cube sized robots) was dominated by Singapore team "Socrates," repeating their win in RoboWorldCup in Dortmund Germany last summer. Although not as loud or large-scale as combat robots, the Mirosot competition held a huge section of the audience, with its lightning fast plays and high scoring matches (17 to 10).

Androids weren't limited to the autonomous humanoid challenges. Human contestants remotely controlled androids to compete in one-on-one KungFu, individual acrobatics, stair climbing, and a 2-meter race. In the android acrobatics class, Japanese favorite "Plen" was the easy gold medal winner with its super-human agility and roller skating prowess. "I can't even roller skate backwards," sighed Calkins. "And that little robot makes it look so easy. He even balances and coasts on one foot."

Americans led by father and son "Team Farrell" from Gray, Maine swept the KungFu competition, eliminating their tough Japanese rivals. 17-year old Chris Farrell managed to beat his own father Rob to pick up the gold with his 15" android "Oro" (named after a Tahitian god of war.) Wunderkind Matt Bauer of Ohio picked up the bronze.

The US was almost locked out of gold medals in the upper-division combat classes, but reigning champion and top-ranked Sewer Snake driven my Matt Maxham held the gold in Heavyweight. But it was the returning cinderella team from Brazil who stole the show when they won gold medals in both middleweight and lightweight combat with their robots "Touro" and "Touro Light". The audience and competitors all went crazy at their knockout 2 minutes, 10 seconds into the lightweight final round, with gold-crazed Brazilians joining their American counterparts in swarming the arena for an impromptu celebration. A few minutes later, they repeated their performance in the middleweight class, the fight lasting the full 3 minutes for a judges decisions, who split 2 to 1 for the Brazilians. Team Brazil also picked up a bronze at 3-on-3 bot hockey.

"RoboGames is a 3-day crash course in Robotics. We've learned more during these 3 days than during the entire past year." said Professor Marco Meggiolaro, organizer of the Rio de Janeiro team "RioBotz" who won the two gold medals. "Most competitors are so accessible and share so much information, even knowing they might face you later in the tournament. We're all friends outside the arena."

"My students easily and gladly pull off all-nighters when it is about building robots. Nothing else could get them so much motivated" said Meggiolaro. "And they're learning in the process. When something breaks or just doesn't work well, I tell them how important calculations are, and they actually get interested in studying Calculus or Physics! They'll read an entire boring book if necessary, or spend weeks searching the web, just to make sure our robots can improve somehow."

In the Superheavyweight class, Canadian favorite Ziggy driven by Mark Demers of Ottawa managed to win over audience favorite "the Judge" from Texas' Team Mechanicus in a 1:48 knockout. Combat robot "The Red Baron," a life-size red dog house with scarf and goggled snoopy atop it, didn't make it to the combat finals even with its flame thrower (much to the crowd's disappointment) although it picked up a medal in the anything goes "best of show" category.

The sportsmanship of the event was proven when Iranian competitor Alireza Kahvand of Hamedan, Iran needed help fixing his robot. He had no other team members, but several Americans jumped in to help him get his robot ready - even though they might be facing his robot "Yavar K" in an upcoming match. In no other place in the world would Iranians and Americans be helping each other so that they could better fight one another.

Jamie Hyneman from the hit TV show "Mythbusters" made an appearance to operate one of two robots in the new "RoBoxing" class - life-sized humanoids that actually box against each other, hitting sensors in the opponents chest and head. The crowd went crazy for Jamie, proving that science-based TV shows can be just as popular as reality shows or sit-coms.

The Tetsujin (iron man) competitions held the audience with exoskeletons that augment human abilities. Double gold medal winner Monty Reed of Seattle, Washington, showed that he could not only lift far more than a normal man could, but demonstrated both walking and hopping abilities in his "LifeSuit 13." The event shows that not only can humans become their own forklifts, but that soon paralyzed people will be walking alongside everyone else - no longer confined to the world of wheelchairs.

Columbia picked up two medals, with their silver medal in the two-wheeled balancer race (think Segway), and a bronze in the Hexapod Challenge. The Hexapod Challenge was won once again by UK robot "Ziggy" and his creator Nick Donaldson. Ziggy holds the distinction of being the only robot to have won a gold medals every year since the founding of RoboGames (as ROBOlympics.)

In the fire-fighting competition, robots find a fire and put it out. For the third year, 15 year old Tony Pratkanis and his robot "Solenopsis invicta" bested his middle-aged human rivals, most of whom are professional engineers. The third place finisher, sixty year old Bob Allen didn't hold Tony's success against him, he offered him a job.

With no Japanese teams competing in robot sumo, Singapore continued their domination of the class, taking home 10 medals across four weight classes. The team from Ngee Ann Polytechnic swept two different 3kg classes and the 500g class, although grabbing only a bronze win the 100g class, with Mexico taking gold and USA taking silver.

In the art bot classes, Oakland artist Nemo Gould wowed the judges with a life-sized robotic squid and anatomically correct "General Mayhem" android. Last year's Taiwanese winner I Wei took home two more medals with his steam powered beetle and centipede. The bartending robot from Austria, "CockBot One" was the no surprise winner of the gold, while local favorite "El Espanol Borracho" took home the bronze with it's flame-throwing Spanish Coffee maker.

MEDALS:

FIRA Robot Soccer:

MiRoSoT 11:11 - Gold: Socrates (Singapore); Silver: Edragon (China); Bronze: ICRO_11 (Korea)

MiRoSoT 5:5 - Gold: Socrates (Singapore); Silver: ICRO_5 (Korea); Bronze: Edragon (China)

RoboSoT 3:3 - Gold: TKU-Robot (Taiwan); Silver: OmniBots (Korea); Bronze: Blue whale-4 (China)

KheperaSoT 1:1 - Gold: HNI-Devils1 (Germany); Silver: HNI-Devils2 (Germany); Bronze: SCT-Scooter1 (Germany)

SimuRoSoT 11:11 - Gold: WUST Climber (China); Silver: WIT-B (China); Bronze: CUG-S11 (China)

SimuRoSoT 5:5 - Gold: WIT-A (China); Silver: WillWing (China); Bronze: CUG-S5 (China)

AndRoSoT 3:3 - Gold: HIT (China); Silver: ICRO (Korea); Bronze: Rino (Korea)

Humanoid Challenges:

Septathalon - Gold: Pi (Taiwan); Silver: BEYOND I (Singapore); Bronze: CUG-Huro (China)

BasketBall - Gold: SURF1 (Singapore); Silver: Pi (Taiwan) & DCA-MIRDC (Taiwan) (tie) ; Bronze: n/a

Obstacle Run - Gold: Pi (Taiwain) & WIT-I (China) (tie); Silver: n/a; Bronze: n/a

Dash - Gold: Pi (Taiwan); Silver: GeNUS (Singapore); Bronze: HanSaRam-VII (Korea) & CUG-Huro (China) (tie)

Penalty Kick - Gold: Pi (Taiwan); Silver: WIT-I (China); Bronze: aiRobot 1 (Taiwan)

Weight Lifting - Gold: Pi (Taiwan); Silver: BEYOND I (Singapore); Bronze: CUG-Huro (China)

Marathon - Gold: HanSaRam-VII (Korea); Silver: Pi (Taiwan); Bronze: SURF1 (Singapore)

Combat:

340 lbs - Gold: Ziggy (Canada); Silver: The Judge (USA); Bronze: Vladiator (USA)

220 lbs - Gold: Sewer Snake (USA); Silver: Last Rites (USA); Bronze: Original Sin (USA)

120 lbs - Gold: Touro (Brazil); Silver: Pipe Wench (USA); Bronze: SubZero (USA)

60 lbs - Gold: Touro Light (Brazil); Silver: K2 (USA); Bronze: Texas HEAT (Canada)

30 lbs - Gold: Totally Offensive (USA); Silver: Proteus (USA); Bronze: Whammo (USA)

12 lbs - Gold: Surgical Strike (USA); Silver: AlphaQ jr. (USA); Bronze: Bullet (USA)

3 lbs - Gold: Dark Pummeler (USA); Silver: Itsa? (USA); Bronze: Gutter Monkey (USA)

1 lb - Gold: Dark Pounder (USA); Silver: Dark Blade (USA); Bronze: Revert (USA)

1 lb - Auto - Gold: Thinkling (USA); Silver: Spider (UK); Bronze: Chopper (UK)

5.3 oz - Gold: Micro Drive (USA); Silver: Dark Bullit (USA); Bronze: Skeet Skeet (Mexico)

Robo-One/Androids:

Kung-Fu (MiddleWt) - Gold: Oro (USA); Silver: Zog (USA); Bronze: Rook's Pawn III (USA)

Kung-Fu (LightWt) - Gold: RN-! (USA); Silver: Kugai (USA); Bronze: Nippy the Hippy (USA)

Acrobatics - Gold: Plen (Japan); Silver: Jx (Japan); Bronze: Felix (USA)

Stair Climbing - Gold: Kugai (USA); Silver: Moose (USA); Bronze: Boomer (USA)

Biped Race - Gold: JSR-D1 (Japan); Silver: Zog (USA); Bronze: Oro (USA)

Sumo:

3kg - Auto - Gold: Zeta+ (Singapore); Silver: Alpha+ (Singapore); Bronze: Judge+ (Singapore)

3kg - R/C - Gold: Zeta (Singapore); Silver: Alpha (Singapore); Bronze: Judge (Singapore)

1kg - Lego - Gold: Tribble2.0 (USA); Silver: OMARCITO (USA); Bronze: lego Warrior (USA)

500g - Auto - Gold: Wind (Singapore); Silver: Grace (Singapore); Bronze: SensorKnight (Singapore)

100g - Auto - Gold: Pepe el toro (Mexico); Silver: PICaPek (USA); Bronze: Alpha_Micro1 (Singapore)

25g - Auto - Gold: Hercules-Nano (Austria); Silver: n/a; Bronze: n/a

Open:

Line Slalom - Gold: Hektor (Austria); Silver: princesa amazona (Mexico); Bronze: burrito de la comaye (Mexico)

Balancer Race - Gold: Flexo (USA); Silver: UPB-Juggler (Colombia); Bronze: Balance Pak 1 (USA)

Fire-Fighting - Gold: Solenopsis invicta (USA); Silver: Flame Out (USA); Bronze: ISIS (USA)

Robomagellan - Gold: Spybot (USA); Silver: Odyssey (USA); Bronze: Intrepid (USA)

Walker Challenge - Gold: Ziggy (UK); Silver: Flik (UK); Bronze: Angelo (Colombia)

Best of Show - Gold: HotShot (USA); Silver: R2PV1 (USA); Bronze: Steam Beetle (Taiwan) & The Red Baron (USA) (tie)

Lego Open - Gold: orion II (USA); Silver: Golfer (USA); Bronze: Flik (UK)

BEAM:

Speeder - Gold: Perihelion (USA); Silver: Hermes (Austria); Bronze: n/a

Photovore - Gold: Pegasus (Austria); Silver: Pooter (USA); Bronze: Sunny (USA)

Hockey:

12 lbs - Gold: Team USA ; Silver: Team Canada ; Bronze: Team Brazil

Boxing:

RoBoxers - Gold: Johnny Apple Pie (USA); Silver: Boris Ruski (Russia); Bronze: n/a

Tetsujin:

Weightlifting - Gold: LifeSuit 13 (USA); Silver: LifeSuit 14 (USA); Bronze: n/a

Walking Race - Gold: LifeSuit 13 (USA); Silver: LifeSuit 14 (USA); Bronze: n/a

Art Bots:

Static - Gold: Lockwasher 1 (USA); Silver: ChakraTron (USA) & Farad (USA) (tie); Bronze: n/a

Kinetic - Gold: Giant Squid (USA); Silver: Steam Centipede (Taiwan); Bronze: General Debris (USA)

Musical - Gold: Animal (USA); Silver: Arca Musarithmica 1 (USA); Bronze: Musical Bugs (USA)

Bartending - Gold: CockBot One (Austria); Silver: bravo (USA); Bronze: El Espanol Borracho (USA)

Painting - Gold: Gimpy2 (USA); Silver: Drawer Bot (USA); Bronze: Brush & Ink (USA)

Junior League (under 18 yr old):

Woots & Snarks - Gold: Game Bot 2 (USA); Silver: Grasshopper (USA); Bronze: orion (USA)

Lego Magellan - Gold: DannysMagellan (USA); Silver: Yoshi (USA); Bronze: n/a

Lego Challenge - Gold: Race Bot 1 (USA); Silver: Santa's Little Helper (USA); Bronze: Dragonfire (USA)

Lego Open - Gold: AquaKeeper 2.0 (USA); Silver: QuickBot2 (USA); Bronze: Yoshi (USA)

500 g Sumo - Gold: Mister Fish (USA); Silver: n/a; Bronze: n/a

120 lb combat - Gold: Dolor (USA); Silver: Dolor's Hermana (USA); Bronze: n/a

Vex Open - Gold: Robo William (USA); Silver: Backpack Robot (USA); Bronze: MVMS - Vex Open (USA)

Best of Show - Gold: Binary Star - USA ; Silver: n/an/a

Medal Count

USA - Gold: 33; Silver: 34; Bronze: 27

Singapore - Gold: 6; Silver: 6; Bronze: 5

China - Gold: 3; Silver: 4; Bronze: 7

Taiwain - Gold: 6; Silver: 4; Bronze: 2

Austria - Gold: 4; Silver: 1; Bronze: 0

S. Korea - Gold: 1; Silver: 2; Bronze: 2

UK - Gold: 1; Silver: 2; Bronze: 2

Japan - Gold: 2; Silver: 1; Bronze: 0

Mexico - Gold: 1; Silver: 1; Bronze: 2

Brazil - Gold: 2; Silver: 0; Bronze: 1

Canada - Gold: 1; Silver: 1; Bronze: 1

Germany - Gold: 1; Silver: 1; Bronze: 1

Colombia - Gold: 0; Silver: 1; Bronze: 1

Russia - Gold: 0; Silver: 1; Bronze: 0

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